On 1st September 2020, the Supreme Court of India (SCI) uploaded the verdict ordering the removal of 48,000 jhuggies along the railway lines in Delhi. This is not only unjust, draconian but also unconstitutional. In view of the article 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. 

Delhi Slum& JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 (PART –A) states: 

"1. This policy is based on the following principles:

(i)               The people living in jhuggis perform critical economic activities in Delhi like drivers, vegetable vendors, maid servants, auto and taxi drivers, etc.

(ii)             In the past, adequate housing was not planned for these people in middle or upper class areas, to which they provide services. As a result, a number of jhuggi clusters mushroomed all over Delhi close to the areas, where they provide services...

(iv)            The decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Chameli Singh vs. State of UP [1996 (2) SCC 549] and in Shantistar Builders vs. N.K. Toitame, [1990 (1) SCC 520] and numerous other judgments have laid down that the right to life is not a right to mere animal existence and that the right to housing is a fundamental right. Going further, in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation vs. Nawab Khan Gulab Khan, [1997 (11) SCC 123], the Supreme Court held that even poverty stricken persons on public lands have a fundamental right to housing. The Court laid down that when slum dwellers have been at a place for some time, it is the duty of the government to make schemes for housing the jhuggi dwellers. In the most recent decision of the Chief Justice’s Bench in the Delhi High Court in Sudama Singh Vs. Government of Delhi [168 (2010) DLT 218], the Court referred to the provisions of the Delhi Master Plan and emphasized in-situ rehabilitation. It is only in the extra ordinary situation, when in- situ rehabilitation is not possible, then only, rehabilitation by relocation is to be done. The normal rule is in-situ up-gradation and re-development."

So the recent order of the Supreme Court of India (SC of India / SCI / SC) asking for eviciting slums close to the railway tracks is in the contravention  of the right to housing as enunciated in various orders of the SC of India. 

The CityMakers, the urban workers and labouring community deserve every respect of a city than being targeted  for eviction. 

The UNION Govt in its election manifesto spoke of Housing for All, "Jahan Jhuggi Vahan Makan (Where Informal housing, there formal housing)". Why is it not intervening in asking the SC to revoke its draconian / unjust order. 

Already the country is reeling under the Pandemic, COVID - 19, such an eviction will aggravate the situation for the poor. And further push them into homelessness and exposure to the pandemic. 

The Govts have falied by not providing housing for all. We  call for a housing continuum approach, starting with shelters for the homeless residents (CityMakers), hostels for the workers (women and men), incremental housing, transit hosuing, in-situ upgradation, and finally a legal tenure housing. The Parliament needs to pass an Act on Housing for All, the bill for which was ready in 1992 by the National Campaign for Housing Rights (NCHR)

We call upon each one of you to sign this petition and demand the recall of this grotesque SC Order. And also demand housing first for all!

This SC order is opposed to the UN declarations, Charters, Covenants, Conventions, and recommendations.

Isn't the WILL of WE, the people of India Supreme?  And aren't all the authorities to work towards fulfilling the WILL of the People of India?